Toe-board.



J. G. VICHE.

TOE BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED 059.13. 19.13,.

Patented May 11, 1915.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1915.-

eppnoetion filed December 13, 1813. Serial no. 806,637.

. T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1 Joanna: Gonranr Vrcnn, a citizen of the limited tates, residing at Duluth, in theccunty of .St- Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented new and useful Improvements in Toe Boards, of

which the following is a specification.

This invention. relates to gang ways of that class which are used particularly to provide a. passagewa for a. two wheel truck 1n transferring merc andise. from one railroad car to another, said gang ways being usually known as too boar s. a

The invention has for its object to produce a device of this class which shall be simple in construction, durable and the con-: struction of which shall be such that there will be no vertical vibration due to the passage of a truck thereover which would tend to dislodge the toe board as well as the truck. F

A further object of the lnvention-is to produce a toe board having ard flan es at the sides thereof to prevent the possibih y or likelihood of the wheel trucks passing over the edge of the board.

A further object of the invention is to reduce a toe board of arcuate shape havmg upstanding corrugations or ridges which constitute wheel guards and which also when the board is inverted will constitute runners to permit the board to be conveniently dragged from place to place.

With these and other ends in view which will readil' appear as the nature of the in vcntion is utter understood, the same con eists in the improved construction and novel arrangement and combination of parts which will be hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanyin drawing has been illustrated a sire is an preferred form of the invention, it eing, however, understood that no limitation is necessarily made to the precise structural details therein exhibited, but that changes, alterations and modifications within the scope of the claims may-be resorted to when desired.

In the drawing,-Figure 1 is a top plan view cl. a toe board constructed in accordance with the invention. Fig. 2 is a longi-' sectional view taken on the line 3--3 in Fig.

1. Fig. l is. a sectional detail view on an enlarged scale taken on the line 4-4 in Fig. 1.-

Corresponding parts in the several figures are denoted by like characters of reference.

The: improved toe board is made of a single sheet ofmetal such as boiler steel of suitable gage, said sheet being of any desired dimensions and of rectangular shape. The sheet, which is designated by 15, is bent to'arcuate form, as best seen in Fig. 2, and ribs or corrugations 16 are formed lon tudinally thereof and adjacent to the si es thereof, said ribs or corrugations which are likewise arcuate or rocker-shaped being upstruck from the material.

It will be noticed that the arcuate rockershaped ribs 16 are of a smaller radius than the sheet 15 and that consequently when the said sheet is overturned, as will be presently hereinafter described, only a limited portion of said ribs will engage the surface of I downwardly intermediate the ends thereof,

but that said ribs will also constitute guards to prevent the wheels 17 of a truck 18 that is wheeled over the board from accidentally passing over the side edges of the board.

The sheet 15 is provided adjacent to the endedges thereof with threaded apertures 19 for the reception of calk members C, each of said members comprising a peg or prong made ofsteel'and having a sharp pointed end 20, a threaded shank 21 and an annular flange 22 intermediate the ends thereof, said flange be ng of non-circular sha s so as to constitute a wrench seat to one Is the calk to "be conveniently applied or detached. ,These calks, any deslred number of which may beused adjacent to each end of the toe board, will serve to engage the wooden floors of the cars, the space between which is bridged by the toe board,

thereby preventing accidental displacement of the latter. The too board is also provided adjacent to each end edge'withan aperture 23 which may be enga ed by a hook or the like for the purpose 0 handling the toe board and dragging it from'place tofi. I

place.

When the improved toe board is in use, it

is placed convex side uppermost in position to bridge the space between adjoining freight cars and will be held securely in place by the calks C engaging the floors of the cars. When trucks are wheeled over the toe board, the upstanding ribs 16 will serve [as wheel guides or guards to prevent the wheels running over the edges of the board.

; The said ribs also constitute reinforcements that will g downward y' to any appreciable extent.

revent the board fromyielding Furthermore, when it is desired to move the board from place to place it is simply inverted, and the arcuate ribs will then engage I the ground and constitute rocker-shaped runners. When a drag rope, a hook or the like is engaged with one of the apertures 23 the board may then be rocked to elevate the portion nearest the operator ,who is thus enabled to drag the board over the ground --from place to place, there being little or no frictional resistance because only a very limited portion of the ribs 16 will at any time be in ground engaging position.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, is

A toe board consisting of a rectangular 5 sheet of metal curved longitudinally and having upstanding rocker-shaped ribs of smaller radius than the curvature of the sheet on the convex side adjacent to the side edges thereof, said ribs constituting rein- 30 forcing braces, wheel guards and, when the toe board is overturned, runners for convenience in moving the'device, the curvature of said runners being such that only limited portions thereof may at an; time be 35 ifn ground engaging position on a vel surace. 1

In testimon whereof I afiix my signature in presence 0 two witnesses.-

- JOSEPH GODFREY VICHE.

- -Witnesses: .F. D. ASH,

C. WILLIAMS. 

